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- We live in a democracy and every pole taken so far shows that UK citizens are unequivecally against officers carrying firearms. That right there nails this ideas coffin for me.- Every pole done so far shows that police officers themselves do not want to be armed. Again that sort of answers the issue for me. - Do i want burglers and minor criminals carrying firearms in response to armed officers? No. No thanks. - Do i want all govornment officers to be heavily armed in times of political upheaval when the public at large have no way to defend themselves against potential state born tyrany? No.

Firearms may work in other countries. Though thats debatable. But they are not for the UK. There are no decent arguments for it. No thanks.

And its pretty ignorant of the media to use this case as a reason to bring in more armed officers. The nutter who shot these women lured them to their death with a fake robbery story then ambushed them with firearms and a hand grenade. These officers could have been carrying bazooka's and they still may never have fired a shot off. Its underhanded of the media to use this case as a pro-gun example.

Recently when Raul Mote shot an unarmed officer he approached him in his car and shot and instantly blinded him unexpectantly through the window. Another case where an amed officer would have been completely helpless and may infact have invited a follow up shot. There are very few recent cases in which a gun would actually have helped anything.

In any case we do have tactical armed response units when any kind of warning is given. So we have that capability already.

wait, are you guys implying that UK cops dont even carry a handgun? that sounds a little scary, knowing that the police arent armed.

Yeah, the vast majority of UK cops do not carry any kind of lethal firearm. Every county or area force has its own armed response squads though who do carry and are trained in using firearms. We also have armed guards at various transport hubs and undisclosed checkpoints in various cities. The public AND police themselves have undertaken many polls through the years all of which overwhelmingly argue against the typical beat police carrying guns.

The upside of this is that the vast, vast majority of UK criminals do not carry firearms either. This is why it is not scary in the slightest. I feel much safer because of that. A point which cannot be and is never emphasised enough.

Any time a unique incident such as this comes up the media and scared people start shitting themselves. These incidents are few and far between and in any case you cannot simply drive policy solely by the exceptions to the rule.

One look at statictics like these and the thought of more firearms in this country terrifies me:

Americans seem to have a very strange relationship with guns. I don't understand the whole "guns are cool" phenomenon where they fawn over them like toys.

Though i do agree that America has a bizarre and OTT relationship with guns i do find them quite interesting. I love cars, motorbikes, and technology and machinery of all kinds. Guns use very interesting technology and I like the idea of competative shooting and target practice.

But it apparently doesnt work. Its ashame we couldnt use guns in a purely recreational way but it doesnt seem to be the case. Humans cant be trusted with them.

And a lot of the violence sorounding guns is due to some issue with American culture. If you look at gun crime satistics for different countries the US is closer to third world levels of gun violence even though several 1st world countries also have legal gun ownership.

It was a question put forward in "Bowling For Columbine". Why does America have such high gun crime? Not one person answered "Because we have too many guns?"

This concept seems to be ignored or misundesrstood in the US. I mean the US fatality rate per 100,000 citizens due to Guns is higher than some countries who are currently in the midst of a civil war. That surprised me. Infact the US is sorounded on all sides by third world countries in this department. Kind of like its third world attitude to execution.

Infact if you check out this map showing all the countries who still practice state driven murder you will notice the US shares much more in common than just gun crime with its so called enemies:

(The Blue is countries who have rejected state sponsored murder. The Red are those countries where it is still commonly practiced. The other colours denote varying levels of rejection or use in extreme circumstances.)